Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Again, a couple of good questions. I think I have answered your first question in my last post, but, if not, let me know and I will address anything I might have missed. Let's see if I can properly answer the questions remaining.

Encourage active leadership for all officers of brigade level and above – The officers having command responsibilities should take an active role in the welfare of their subordinates.

Active leadership, in the context of an NWC command position, could take many forms, but is always a direct result of sincerely caring about the welfare and development of the officers under your command. Some examples of what I would consider active leadership would be:

• Regular and friendly communication with the officers in your command;
• A proactive commitment to training these officers to become more skilled in the games that we play;
• A helpful spirit regarding questions that your officers may have concerning the forums, DoR System, optional rules, scenario selections, etc.
• Involving yourself in games with your officers to help them learn and grow;
• Fostering a team spirit within your command;
• Fostering pride in your unit;
• Fostering pride in our club;
• Making public announcements in the forum when your officers are promoted, receive medals or achieve any other notable accomplishment of which you are personally proud;
• Supporting your men in every imaginable way, standing firmly in the path of criticism for their sake and protecting them from all harm.

All of these things are active leadership to me and I practice every one of them in the NWC. If elected as your President, I will apply these same principles equally for every officer in our club. Army boundaries play no part whatsoever in my mind relative to the leadership of this club. All members are important to the success of our club and, if elected as our President, I will work directly, and equally, for each and every one.


Being a new member of the club, I have only seen a small group of members involved in communicating through the forums. How many active members does the club really have and could you describe what an active member is?

According to our Club Rules, an active member must have at least one game going at all times. The only exception I see is that this criterion of activity is not listed for our regimental commanders. I have no understanding why it has been omitted in this case. We are a Napoleonic Wargaming Club. If you do not maintain at least one active, registered game within the club at all times, I believe you would be classified as inactive in accordance with our current, club rules. In any case, this seems to be a very simple criterion to meet. In compliance with our club rules, I have never been without a least one, registered active game in play since I have been a member of the NWC.

To me, there are many other aspects of being active beyond the maintenance of at least one active game. One of the most important is forum activity. As I have previously stated, I consider the forum to represent the electronic equivalent of the gaming table that I so dearly love. I feel that the forum should be the vibrant heart of this club, a place to which everyone loves to go. It, along with our websites, is one of our most vital assets in capturing the initial interest of prospective, new members. I would consider it a great tragedy if a potential recruit were to visit our club and, upon seeing no activity in our forums, conclude the club was dead and boring. Our forums hold great advertising potential and, with active participation, can be a really fun place to spend a little time on a rainy afternoon. I love our forums. I think all officers should actively participate in them and am doing my level best to make the Rhine Tavern a more interesting place to visit.

Volunteering to perform work behind the scenes is vital to the sustainability of our club as well. Our websites are another important tool for selling the club, but they also play a critical part in maintaining our officer’s morale. I have previously voiced my views on our websites, so I will not go into any detail reiterating them here. I certainly do appreciate the efforts of all of our active Webmasters. We simply could not run an internet gaming club without them. If elected, I will assume the handling and updates of the officer’s records in our DoR System. I pledge that I will keep them current to within 1 or 2 days. It would not be fitting for me to do anything else. I want to help our club to grow in vibrancy and activity, to become even more of a place which Napoleonic gamers will want to join, where they can have fun and recapture the feeling of camaraderie that we all shared when we gathered together, in person, around our large gaming tables. I will not ask for the application of any level of effort from any member in this club that I am not willing to put forth myself. If elected, I will lead by example, not by proxy. I am fully committed to the NWC.

You asked about the actual number of active members in our club. I do not know the exact number, but based on what I have seen of players with ongoing, registered games, I would say there are less than 100, and probably closer to 50-70. The number of members playing registered games within our club falls far short of the number of the total membership of record.

In my thanking there should be communication between the commander of a Corps and the Commander of Div. Then the Brig commander should know their people in their Brig. The talk should be limit to muster and training coaching should not be allowed. Training should be between the Brig commanders and people in their Brig. Outside coaching and what been going on should be stop. We don’t need a lot of e-mails between people look at what happen to my commander his e-mail was full of virus.

Mark, thank you for running.

I appreciate the thought and effort you have put in to your plans. It is good to see the passion you bring to your candidacy and I hope the open discussion from both candidates spurs members to be more involved in either the social side of the club or in games.

Regards,

_________________
Marechal Jeff Bardon
Duc de Castiglione et Prince de Wagram
Commandant de la Garde Imperiale

Very glad to do it, Jeff. Thanks for the kind words!

I do still owe you a game turn. You know, we are all going to be in deep trouble here when John returns and starts making all of his future posts in Chinese.

Likewise Mark. You had shown a great deal of energy and involvement since your arrival. We appreciate your participation.

_________________
Field Marshal Sir Edward Blackburn, 1st Duke of Aberdeen K.G.
85th (Buck's Light Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
16th British Brigade
7th Division
III (Peninsular) Corps
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards

I DON'T PLAY WITH ROUT LIMITING OR NME OFF

Thank you, Ed. I do actually enjoy it. It is quite fun from my perspective and I look forward to the day when many more of our members take better advantage of the social potential of our club and forums to get to know, and form lasting friendships, with their fellow gamers. I do dearly love these games. I cannot honestly explain why, but the love for gaming is deeply embeded in my soul. I believe that it should be fun, in all aspects, and in what ever small measure I can help impart that to this club, I will. In the words of George C. Scott when he portrayed George S. Patton in that classic film, "I love it. God help me, I do love it so!"

And now, my venerable Field Marshall, if you will forgive me, I am in receipt of some playtesting turns from you and am regretably compelled to make my best attempt at chasing your men from the field of battle, preferably before you do the same to mine.

i vote for you but WHERE is the BEER...???

seriously, good luck to you, sir..! you have my vote

robert noftz
1st hvy cav div

good luck sir, good to have such people like you in this club.

_________________
Oberst Rustem Riza
Ostpreußisches Kurassier Regiment (KR.2)
Königlich Preußische Korps
Austrian-Prussian-Swedish Contingent
Coalition Army

Well, as this is the last day of our Presidential Campaign, I suppose it is time to conclude my writings here. This election has proven to be quite an eye opening experience for me. I have, to date, avoided making any posts in my opponent’s campaign thread out of respect for him, and he has likewise done the same for me. Although I have been reading everything that has been posted, I chose to withhold my comments until the conclusion of this campaign. I must admit that I am honestly disappointed to see such seeming animosity between some of our officers displayed in our public forum, particularly when they are associated with the election of our next Club President. Both the accusations, and the responses, were not what I would have hoped for, or expected, from either a Cabinet Member or a Presidential Candidate. I believe that we should always strive to conduct ourselves with dignity and honor, particularly when our words are placed on public display for all to see. While my initial focus was upon improving the critical operations of our club, and that yet remains paramount in my thinking, it is now apparent that we will also need to focus our attention upon the healing of old wounds between our highest leaders in the hopes that they can manage to work together for the future benefit of all. We are all brothers here, with a deep love of history and a common bond in our games. It is a waste of effort, and not at all fitting, that we should spend our time bickering with each other. We should spend our time having fun, enjoying the company of like minded fellows, and constantly striving to make our club the very best place on the internet for the enjoyment of Napoleonic Wargaming. I was glad to see the apologies in the end.

I remain deeply and passionately committed to the NWC. I love this club and every member in it. You are my brothers in virtual arms and I am willing to humbly lay my sword on the altar of service on your behalf. I am active, involved and ready to serve you as our club’s next President should you deem me worthy of the office.

My fate in this campaign now rests where it should, in the capable hands of our membership. I implicitly trust your judgment , and your resolve, to cast your vote in the very best manner to ensure a bright future for our club. I ardently hope your choice lies with me.

I sincerely thank you for caring enough to be actively involved in this election process and having the immeasurable fortitude to read this thread to its conclusion. My understanding is that the instructions concerning the method of casting your votes will be forthcoming from our Cabinet.

Sincerely, Respectfully and With Many Thanks,
Mark